\u201cWairoa people are struggling in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle and the flooding that resulted from the bar not being opened in June last year,\u201d Lawson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still have 150 yellow-placarded homes. The council is working through a range of processes from flexible rate payment options to enforcement proceedings and rating sales for long-term entrenched rating debt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eight properties were at various stages of rating sales, with at least 19 mortgage demands in process.<\/p>\n
In the 23\/24 year, $952,000 in rates was owed to the council. <\/p>\n
A spokesperson said the council has had to apply to the court for an order to sell a property to recoup rate arrears on \u201cseveral occasions\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is only taken as a last resort, and the council\u2019s preference is to work with ratepayers to manage any situation where there are rates arrears.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hastings District Council<\/p>\n
After a 15% rate increase, arrears for 2024\/25 were $3.7m in Hastings.<\/p>\n
This was down on the 2023\/24 financial year – the first full year after Cyclone Gabrielle smashed the district – when $4.9m was owed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people have set up payment arrangements and the council continues to support its ratepayers,\u201d a Hastings council spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
In 2024-25, a total of 2232 ratepayers owed on average $1655, while, at the same time, for the previous financial year, 3590 homeowners were behind in their payments on an average of $1352.<\/p>\n
As of August 8, 2025, the Hastings district had 34,654 rateable units.<\/p>\n
There were 21 legal processes to recover rates debts under way.<\/p>\n
Since electronic records began in 2013, the council has applied seven times to the court for an order to sell or lease a property to recoup money.<\/p>\n
However, these were mostly settled, with only one property sold in 12 years. One is currently going through the process.<\/p>\n
Napier City Council<\/p>\n
In Napier, ratepayers owed just over $1 million for the 2024\/2025 period.<\/p>\n
A Napier City Council spokesperson said the council was always willing to help people having difficulty meeting their rates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can work out a payment plan and provide information on support they might qualify for. The best thing to do is to call us as early as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were 1662 properties owing a total of $1.04m, an average amount of $626 each.<\/p>\n
Napier has a total of 26,506 rateable units.<\/p>\n
There were no legal processes under way, however, in the last five years, there have been six, with three resulting in house sales.<\/p>\n
Central Hawke\u2019s Bay District Council<\/p>\n
The council\u2019s chief financial officer Brent Chamberlain said its rate arrears were measured as an accumulation over time.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the figures in the 2024\/2025 financial year originate and appear in previous financial years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The council had $175,000 in rate arrears at the end of the 2024\/2025 financial year, split over 626 properties owing at least $1 or more.<\/p>\n
The average arrears for those properties was $1265.<\/p>\n
In the 2023\/2024 financial year, the total arrears were $155,000 across 752 properties owing $1 or more. The average arrears were $995.<\/p>\n
The town had 8144 rateable units in 2024 and 8395 in 2025.<\/p>\n
Chamberlain said five properties were currently undergoing legal processes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is extremely rare for a judgment to result in a forced rating sale, as the owners normally refinance first to avoid this happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are three properties that have court orders issued attached to them, including a longstanding debt and an individual\u2019s ideological dispute to paying rates, rather than their ability to pay,\u201d Chamberlain said.<\/p>\n
Hawke\u2019s Bay Regional Council<\/p>\n
A regional council spokesperson said as of June 30, 2025, a balance of $1.98m was outstanding for the 2024\/25 rate year, excluding penalties.<\/p>\n
It was owed by 5373 properties, though 578 had less than $10 outstanding, an HBRC spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
The average balance for 2024\/25 arrears was $369, while for 2023\/24 it was $338.<\/p>\n
The council has 74,178 rateable units.<\/p>\n
There were no legal processes under way.<\/p>\n
For help<\/p>\n
All councils in the Hawke\u2019s Bay region have a rates rebate system. To find out if you are eligible, contact your council.<\/p>\n
All five councils encouraged ratepayers to make contact if they were having difficulty paying their rates to discuss a plan.<\/p>\n
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWairoa people are struggling in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle and the flooding that resulted from the bar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26694,24744,26691,806,1561,26695,2516,7558,5499,1644,1976,78,1132,130,3025,111,43,139,69,5270,26693,26692,7676,530,666,131,165,2743,15289,102,379],"class_list":["post-26766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-26694","tag-amount","tag-arrears","tag-as","tag-bay","tag-bills","tag-concern","tag-councils","tag-doubles","tag-financial","tag-hawkes","tag-in","tag-million","tag-more","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-one","tag-owed","tag-owing","tag-rates","tag-residents","tag-struggling","tag-than","tag-their","tag-unpaid","tag-wairoa","tag-with","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}